House on Mango Street - Ownership

Ownership

Power. The ability to exert control over something. In the story House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, girls are fed the message that beauty is their main source of power. To be beautiful was to have the ability to take advantage of men, to be able to manipulate them. With Mango Street being an impoverished neighborhood where most residents are desperate for a better life, many girls believed in this illusion of power in beauty. They put their efforts into looking pretty in hopes that the men will give them a car, a house, and a life out of poverty for nothing in return. Esperanza, an astute resident of Mango Street, realizes that although it seems like these women have control over men, they are actually in a position of powerlessness. Real power, Esperanza discovers, is found not in the offerings of others, but in earning true ownership of things, such as transportation and a home.

Ownership is power. To own a mode of transportation is to own the power to move from one place to another. In House on Mango Street, many girls want to go downtown to find a job, travel the world, or live in a richer neighborhood, but the lack of transportation restricts them from leaving the neighborhood. This leads the girls to use their beauty to convince men to provide them a method of transportation, such as a car. While at first it may seem as if beautiful women gain ownership of the car, in reality, true possession of the transportation still lies in the men's hands. This is illustrated through Marin, a Puerto Rican girl who is confined in her aunt's house. She is described as "Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life (27)." Although Marin is "dancing," "singing," and doing everything to flaunt her beauty under a "streetlight," or a spotlight, in the end, Marin fails to escape Mango Street because she strives not for the possession of a car, but someone else with a car to stop and take her away. She has to "[wait] for a car to stop." This shows how little control she actually has over men and her own life. She had intended on escaping poverty by having someone save her, not knowing that by relying on others, she becomes powerless. She is "waiting for…someone to change her life." The fact that the power to "change her life" is in the hands of an unknown "someone" proves that the owner of the car has the power to better lives and Marin, who does not possess the car, is powerless. No matter how much Marin tries, she will not gain true control over her life because the possession of the car, something that is capable of transporting her out of Mango Street, still belongs to "[some]" man.

Esperanza, unlike Marin who does not have or seek real ownership, sees the flaw behind